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Are modern comics still worth buying for the modern comic book fan? That answer varies depending on who you ask; most responses are mixed. Most fans enjoy particular comic book IPs or multiverse variants of existing IPs published under new imprints. However, most comic book publishers, especially Marvel, are struggling with keeping modern comic book fans happy.
For one thing, modern Marvel and DC comics seem to take more inspiration from their billion-dollar live counterparts than the other way around. Most modern comic books rarely last beyond six or 12 issues and are subject to near-constant relaunches and reboots. Or, readers have to deal with line-wide crossovers that interrupt the narrative momentum of their favorite solo or team books.
Are modern comics still worth buying? I think so, but the modern comic book reader must let go of a traditionalist mindset and seek out new characters and titles for more reading fulfillment. Let’s discuss the issue.
Reboots and Relaunches
Ryan North is a popular Marvel writer who recently made fans of modern comics fall in love with Fantastic Four comics again. The writer blends a lot of body horror ideas and modern science inspirations into stories featuring Marvel’s first family.
However, it was an annoyance to some fans when Marvel chose to relaunch North’s Fantastic Four run with a new #1 issue. The problem was that the relaunch came in the middle of a storyline, not the resolution of one. Constant relaunches and reboots are now a common marketing and sales strategy for comic publishers.
Most fans of modern comics are the film, streaming shows, and video game adaptations, not necessarily the comics. So, publishers routinely reboot modern comics after issue #6, #12, or in the middle of a current run to get a new #1 sales spike. Reboots and relaunches are also used to provide an easier jumping-on point for new readers hesitant to pick up issue #877 of a series.
Confusing Legacy Numbering
I’ve explained that publishers of modern comics often relaunch them with a new #1 issue to drive sales spikes and attract new readers. Did you know that publishers often also revert back to the original issue numbering they purposely disrupt when it suits them?
In September 2026, issue #1,000 of The Amazing Spider-Man will debut. However, the title has had over seven volumes, relaunches, and reboots with various issue number disruptions since 1963. The current issue of The Amazing Spider-Man is issue #29. However, the title will revert to issue #1,000 to honor the numbering milestone and then either revert to the new volume numbering or reboot again.
This is not the only title that does this; legacy numbering confusion happens often.
Same Old Characters
While readers of modern comics always say they want to experience new characters, they usually don’t support them. Most comic book readers are traditionalists and purists and want to see the same comic book characters in the same status quo stories that they have always seen them in.
Take Batman, for example. In the last decade, Batman has lost his fortune, got it back, and suffered the death of Alfred Pennyworth. Alfred is still dead in the comics. However, not much else has changed about Batman. Batman is still the world’s greatest detective and a huge hit with fans.
In 2025, over 51% of the top-selling 50 comics were Batman or Batman-adjacent comic books. Even Absolute Batman, a more brutal variant of Batman in a different universe, is still just a slightly different version of the traditional Batman.
The same fans of modern comics who say they demand new characters and publishers only give them the oldies, only buy the same old comics.
Confusing Live-Action Film Synergy With Comics
The MCU, and to a lesser extent, the DCEU and DCU, found their filmmaking inspiration in comic books published decades ago. For example, Iron Man’s Demon in a Bottle storyline from the 1970 was a main story inspiration for 2008’s Iron Man.
It is not 2008 anymore. A lot of comic book fans complain about comic book film fatigue. Moreover, modern comic book films are inspiring and influencing the comics, not the other way around. You will see the MCU Tony Stark in modern comics, not a unique perspective of the character. Or, you may see MCU Peter Quill in a modern comic, not a new perspective of Star-Lord.
Modern comics have become advertisements for the films, not the inspiration for future films. It’s a lazy creativity and marketing echo chamber that benefits no one.
Alienating Modern Fans
Unfortunately, such tactics have a way of alienating long-time and traditionalist comic book readers. Temporarily renumbering The Amazing Spider-Man to #1,000 will never mollify traditionalist fans who were against the constant relaunches and renumbering in the first place.
The same goes for molding modern comics to copy billion-dollar films instead of inspiring the stories of future films. The modern marketing methods of selling comic books are satisfactory at worst for interesting new and casual readers and resentment-inducing at best for traditionalist readers.
So, are modern comics still worth buying?
Modern Comics
Yes, I believe that modern comics are still worth buying. Here are six titles that I would personally recommend that you check out:
- Ultimate Spider-Man (2024)
- Something is Killing the Children (2019)
- Absolute Batman (2024)
- Transformers Energon Universe (2024)
- The Department of Truth (2020)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2024)
I would recommend that you get out of your comfort zone and buy a new or different title. Many publishers offer free multi-page digital look-throughs online before you buy.
It makes more financial sense for publishers to make variants and different universes, like Ultimates or Absolute, featuring the same billion-dollar IPs with minor variations, than to hype new IPs. As much as readers say they want new characters, they routinely don’t support them in great enough numbers for them to succeed.
If you continue buying the same comics because of the same marketing tactics publishers use to get you to buy the same comics, then nothing will change. Modern comics can enter a new age of creative renaissance if fans demand more of publishers.
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